The Church of the Holy Spirit () is a church at 3 Długa Street, in

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

New Town New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz (South Korean band), The Boyz * New (album), ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 ** New (Paul McCartney song), "New" (Paul McCartney song), 2013 * New (EP), ''New'' (EP), ...

. The church was originally built in the

Gothic style Gothic architecture is an architectural style that was prevalent in Europe from the late 12th to the 16th century, during the High and Late Middle Ages, surviving into the 17th and 18th centuries in some areas. It evolved from Romanesque ar ...

alongside a hospital in the 14th century. It was probably the first hospital of this type in the

Mazovia Mazovia or Masovia ( ) is a historical region in mid-north-eastern Poland. It spans the North European Plain, roughly between Łódź and Białystok, with Warsaw being the largest city and Płock being the capital of the region . Throughout the ...

n region and was located just outside the walls of the

Warsaw Old Town Warsaw Old Town, also known as Old Town, and historically known as Old Warsaw,''Encyklopedia Warszawy''. Warsaw: Polish Scientific Publishers PWN, 1994, p. 806. ISBN 83-01-08836-2. is a neighbourhood, and an area of the City Information System, ...

. It was founded by Janusz the Elder, Duke of Warsaw, and handed over to the city in 1388.

History

With the existing small church of the Holy Spirit, the citizens of Warsaw demanded a new hospital and it was set up for this purpose supposedly by Mikołaj Panczatka, who donated the church his property. From 1425 it was a hostel for the poor and in 1473 a chapel, temporary accommodation for guests or pilgrims, and a monastery were added. The parish priest was also the manager of the hospital at that time. The first pastor of the church, known by name, was Jędrzej Pronobis in 1473. Most of the funding received (from nobles and kings such as

Sigismund I the Old Sigismund I the Old (, ; 1 January 1467 – 1 April 1548) was List of Polish monarchs, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1506 until his death in 1548. Sigismund I was a member of the Jagiellonian dynasty, the son of Casimir IV of P ...

and

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) were given to the hospital. Documents also mention parish priests: John Szeliga (1574), Wojciech Pruszczyński (1579) and Wojciech Badowski (1633). In 1629 the

bishop of Poznań A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of dioceses. The role ...

Maciej Łubieński Maciej Łubieński (1572 in Łubna-Jakusy, Łubna – 1652 in Łowicz), of Pomian coat of arms, was a primate of Poland, archbishop of Gniezno, bishop of Poznań, bishop of Kujawy and Interrex (Poland), interrex in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwe ...

, placed it within the Holy Trinity parish (''Parafia Świętej Trójcy na Solcu''), and its buildings were completed, at the behest of the king, as part of the Birgittine Order. In 1579, the brothers of the nearby church of

St George Saint George (;Geʽez: ጊዮርጊስ, , ka, გიორგი, , , died 23 April 303), also George of Lydda, was an early Christian martyr who is venerated as a saint in Christianity. According to holy tradition, he was a soldier in the R ...

were moved to the school at the Church of the Holy Spirit. During the Swedish invasion (commonly referred to as ''The Deluge'') the church fell into ruin and subsequently burnt down, but the magistrate's resolution from 1664 ensured that the hospital had an income. In 1665, in honour of the defence of Warsaw, the magistrate promised the priests of the

Pauline order The Order of Saint Paul the First Hermit (; abbreviated OSPPE), commonly called the Pauline Fathers, is a monastic order of the Catholic Church founded in Hungary during the 13th century. This name is derived from the hermit Saint Paul of Theb ...

a new temple of worship. In 1699 the foundation stone was laid for the new church, which was built from 1707 to 1717 in the

Baroque style The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from the early 17th century until the 1750s. It followed Renaissance art and Mannerism and preceded the Rococo (i ...

by architects Józef Piola and Józef Szymon Bellotti. A friend of King Augustus the Strong, the

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Rybiński was invited for the ceremonial laying of the foundation stone, who set aside 40,000 Polish złotys for the building purposes. The construction of the church continued all the way until 1746, when the chapel, dedicated to

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, was finally completed. In 1708, Warsaw suffered from an outbreak of the Great Northern War plague. During this time, the Pauline brothers were said to have organised the first pilgrimage from Warsaw to the

Jasna Góra monastery The Jasna Góra Monastery ( , ''Luminous or Light Mountain'', ) in Częstochowa, Poland, is a shrine dedicated to the Virgin Mary and one of the country's places of pilgrimage. The image of the Black Madonna of Częstochowa, also known as Ou ...

Częstochowa Częstochowa ( , ) is a city in southern Poland on the Warta with 214,342 inhabitants, making it the thirteenth-largest city in Poland. It is situated in the Silesian Voivodeship. However, Częstochowa is historically part of Lesser Poland, not Si ...

to pray to the

Virgin Mary Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under titles of Mary, mother of Jesus, various titles such as Perpetual virginity ...

to save them from the disease. Ever since, the pilgrimage has become an important aspect of Polish culture and continues to this day. By 1800 there were nine priests as well as two German professors and four students studying theology in the monastery. In January 1807 the army of

Napoléon Bonaparte Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

used the monastery as army barracks. After the war, the monastery was briefly regained (the abbot at the time was Teodor Fortuński), however in 1819 the Tsarist administration ordered the priests to be removed from Warsaw to

and that the church was to be administered by the German Brotherhood of St. Benno. Successive rectors were priests of German origin including Lüdicke, Amman, Gelderland, and Ballach. In 1825 the monastery opened the main

seminary A seminary, school of theology, theological college, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called seminarians) in scripture and theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as cle ...

as a theological faculty and later was transferred to the

Franciscan Order The Franciscans are a group of related organizations in the Catholic Church, founded or inspired by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi. They include three independent Religious institute, religious orders for men (the Order of Friars Minor bei ...

. The remaining part of the monastery was rented as apartments. After the

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in 1863, a statue of the

by Czajkowski was placed in front of the church. In 1944, during the infamous

Warsaw Uprising The Warsaw Uprising (; ), sometimes referred to as the August Uprising (), or the Battle of Warsaw, was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance movement in World War II, Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from ...

, the church was almost completely destroyed by the

German Army The German Army (, 'army') is the land component of the armed forces of Federal Republic of Germany, Germany. The present-day German Army was founded in 1955 as part of the newly formed West German together with the German Navy, ''Marine'' (G ...

; the interior of the church and vaulting burnt down with only the main altar surviving. In 1947, the Polish Primate

Cardinal Hlond August Hlond, SDB (5 July 1881 – 22 October 1948) was a Polish Salesian prelate who served as Archbishop of Poznań and Gniezno and as Primate of Poland. He was later appointed Archbishop of Gniezno and Warsaw and was made a cardinal of ...

, returned the church to the administration of the Pauline Order and the church was rebuilt in 1956 in the same form as it was before

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Image:Koscol ducha Nowomiejska.png, A Michał Starkman woodcut from around 1855 Image:Warszawa, kosciol sw. Ducha, wnetrze.jpg, The church's interior Image:Kościół św. Ducha Warszawa.jpg, A view of the church from Mostowa Street

References

External links

{{Commonscat, Holy Spirit church in Warsaw
Official site of the Paulini Kościół Św.Ducha church
Roman Catholic churches in Warsaw 18th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Poland Roman Catholic churches completed in 1746 New Town, Warsaw